Class action lawsuits involving the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) are nothing new. But the 265 lawsuits that were filed in February 2017 saw a 59.2 percent increase, jumping to 422. According to Wesley Bulgarella and Jonathan Hoffman, attorneys with Balch & Bingham LLP, FCRA filings have even started to outnumber Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) filings in recent months, representing a drastic shift in consumer protection litigation. Their report, FCRA Climbing the Ladder to Top Consumer Litigation Statute, which shared insights from WebRecon, states that many consumer plaintiffs are repeat players about 33% alleging FCRA, FCPA or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations in February 2018 had filed at least one similar suit before. A single class action lawsuit broke the records at $60 million against TransUnion, but even individual suits are reaching six-figure verdicts. PETCO job applicants reached a $1.2 million background check class action over unlawful policies and in a similar case, the Ninth Circuit of Appeal held that the inclusion of a liability waiver in the same document at the FCRA disclosure violated the stand alone requirement. Other cases include: Vitas Healthcare Corp. employees alleging the authorization and release form is unlawful; PepsiCo subsidiary, Bottling Group LLC, paying $1.2 million to a plaintiff who said he was not properly notified that a background check would be performed; and Lewis v. Southwest Airlines, in which the plaintiff asserted classwide and willful violations of the FCRAs disclosure requirement and corresponding violence.

W. Barry NIxon, SHRM-CMP is the founder of PreemploymentDirectory.com, the publisher of The Background Buzz, The Global Background Screener, The Annual Background Screening Industry Resource Guide and In Search of Excellence in Background Screening: Insights from Accredited Background Screening Firms. He is co-author of Background Investigations: Managing Hiring Risk from an HR and Security Perspective, a recognized background screening expert and serves as an International Ambassador for the National Association for Professional Background Screeners.